Is this the answer to God, the universe and all that?

Physicists plan £3bn experiment in a 20-mile long tunnel

David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday August 21, 2004
The Guardian

Snip:
They call it the God particle: a mysterious sub-atomic fragment that permeates the entire universe and explains how everything is the way it is. Nobody has ever seen the God particle; some say it doesn't exist but, in the ultimate leap of faith, physicists across the world are preparing to build one of the most ambitious and expensive science experiments the world has ever seen to try to find it.
At a summit meeting in Beijing yesterday, 12 experts from countries including Britain, Japan, America and Germany announced they have agreed on a blueprint for the new experiment - a gigantic atom smashing machine called the international linear collider. Now they must convince their respective governments to meet the anticipated £3bn price tag.

Buried underground away from vibrations on the surface, the collider would accelerate particles from opposite ends of a 20-mile tunnel at near-light speeds and smash them into each other head-on. One stream of particles would be electrons; the other would be positrons, their antimatter partner.

The scientists hope the resulting cataclysmic explosion of heat, light and radiation will recreate the conditions found in first few billionths of a second after the big bang. And when that happens, they hope the God particle, otherwise known as the Higgs boson, will show itself.

The collider will not be built in Britain (Germany, America and Japan are favourites) but scientists here are determined to play a leading role in the project. British physicists have already been involved in planning a number of its key components and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), which pays for research in this field, is waiting to see if the government agrees a plan for Britain to invest some £300m in the experiment over the next decade. A decision is expected in the autumn.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1287710,00.html

42.

and thanks for all the fish :hi:

Deep Thought.

:wow:

42 it is. I love the "Hitchiker's Guide" especially the part where the ship runs out of power trying to make a cup of tea...always leaves me with a craving for Earl Grey.

Is just that the particle could answer the most important unanswered question in physics - the origin of mass, and that there is so much controversy about the theory of its existence. There's nothing actually theological about it.

with lame religeous allusions like "leap of faith".

to what what in the novel "Angels and Demons?"

This is fascinating! Thanks for posting.

Will this thing be something 'different' and/or does the world need two of these super-huge colliders?

Don't know much about this subject. Just asking. :shrug:

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/index.html

Seem to remember reading about this somewhere...

Actually it's on the border of Switzerland and France and the CERN facility sits in BOTH of those countries, although visitors access it from the Swiss side.